Tera Cafe

Tera Café — it puts the «Tera» back in «terrible» (sorry, that was lame)
First: their website (
) depicts a restaurant that clearly doesn’t exist anymore. What was once apparently a decent Indian eatery has now devolved into a rather shabby nightclub/​hookah bar. «Favorite Indian cuisine cooked to perfection»?? Their actual «menu» contained about a dozen items — mostly your standard pub grub and a few very basic kabob dishes (which our waitress informed us they were no longer serving — more on her later). I guess someone forgot to tell them to take down their sign that boldly proclaims «Buffet kabobs and curries».
Second: service, or lack thereof. Full disclosure: I cannot comment on the quality of the food, since we didn’t stick around to eat. Why is this? It’s because they DIDN’T HAVE ANY FOOD! My wife and I went there this week since were eager to give this place a shot based on the review we read on Unilocal.However, we arrived at a completely empty restaurant, with the exception of the manager (owner?) and waitress who seemed surprised that we were there for dinner, and perhaps just a little annoyed that we were interrupting their downtime. Their menu, as stated earlier, left a lot to be desired — when you have more «energy drink» cocktail options than actual Indian dishes, you know that you’re in for a less-​than-​optimal dining experience, Anyway, given that we had only bar food to choose from, my wife asked for the gyro wrap and I chose the veggie wrap. The waitress took our order and then proceeded to exit the building! We didn’t realize until about 40 minutes later, when she finally returned, that she was going out to buy the actual ingredients for our meals! After we deduced what had happened, we threw $ 10 on the table for our drinks and promptly left the Tera Café… never to return.
I don’t know what kind of place this is on a Friday or Saturday night — if you like smoking peach-​flavored hookahs and drinking Vodka and Red Bull, then you may want to give this place a shot. If you, like me, have been impressed by the menu on their website, then considered yourself warned.

I tried Tera Café tonight. I was a little frightened of it when we walked in. It reminded me of a Chinese restaurant the way they had pictures of some of the entrees on the wall. However, I was surprisingly pleased with the food. I would not say it is as good as Haandi or Minerva, but not bad for a little Manassas restaurant. If you have been to Spices in Manassas which is now closed it was MUCH better than Spices.
Apparently this restaurant has only been open four months. I had the Chicken Tikka Masala with garlic naan. It was pretty good. I also ordered a batch of samosas. The homemad Mind and Tamarind sauce was especially yummy.
There was only one man working tonight. He took the order, and cooked it all for us. He was very friendly. I hope that he gradually improves this restaurant over time, which he said they hope to make it a «bigger restaurant» one day.
For now I am going to give it three stars. I think it has potential to be a four from me… but I really would like to eat off of real plates and silverware verses plastic. I plan to go back again at some point and will rate it again at that time!